Rite of the Awakened Familiar
You create a bond with an animal or similiar creature to serve as a friend and enlightened companion. By means of this Ritual the caster is able to awaken an animal or other creature into an Awakened Familiar. This ritual is later revised into the level 2 Ritual, Improve Familiar. Requirements To preform this ritual the caster(s) will need to have the following components: *The Animal to make the bond *3 drops of the wizard's blood *A level 1 ritual circle to focus the magic *Ability to cast the following spells: **Charm Animal **Animal Sight And perform one ritual *Ritual of Enchantment Example Scenario Amadar, a seasoned wizard of many years, is teaching his young apprentice, Willam, one of the first in a series of Arcane Rituals. Though the Rite of the Awakened Familiar is normally a solitary ritual that could be performed by one person, Amadar's assistance will simply make the ritual easier to cast for the Apprentice. (Mechanics: By assisting in the ritual, Amadar is lowering the difficulty for William's ritual role by his caster level (3)). 'Step One: Finding the Familiar' The first thing that Amadar instructs is for Willam to chose an animal to become his first familiar. The choice of animals is important as the newly awakened creature will become bound to him and allow him to acquire new abilities useable only with his familiar. The basic choices boil down to one of three categories of Familiar *''Scout Familiars ''are good when a wizard wants to be able to use them as a scout or messenger. For a messenger, a wizard would often chose a bird, bat or other 'avian' creature. Scouts are good to have but avians are difficult to take care of. They typically sit on their perch or in their cage until needed. There's not much 'companionship' with an Avian. As a scout, the wizard might chose a mammal such as a cat or ferret as the two creatures are good at getting into things, and remaining stealthy while exploring the terrain. *''Protector Familiars'' are good when a wizard wants a companion who will keep himself safe. For this a wizard would often chose a larger creature to awaken. Protector familiars are larger beasts such as dogs, large cats, etc. ** March Hound ** House Cat ** Shadow Cat (Considered Exotic) ** Frost Wolf (Considered Exotic) *''Companion Familiars'' are good when the caster or person just wants a familiar to serve as a friend. Loyal and affectionate, Dogs, Cats and other such animals make perfect companion familiars. Willam decides that he will chose a combination between a Protector and Companion as his familiar. Rather than just finding any ordinary cat off the street, he wants something special and goes to a Menagerie Shop to pick something out. There he finds a young Black Lynx and decides that it is what he wants and buys the animal. Keeping it the cage it was bought in until he can perform the ritual, he returns to his master for the next step. 'Step Two: Constructing the Ritual' With the animal in its cage, Willam returns to his master so that he can learn to awaken it as his familiar. As part of the lesson, Amadar wants Willam to construct his own circle rather than using the one set into the floor of his sanctum. So Willam clears away a section of floor in the common hall that will be large enough to accomodate both himself and the animal's cage and draws the circle with a bit of charcoal from the hearth. He takes extra time to make sure that the circle is perfectly round and each symbol is inscribed according to the formula. (Mechanics: Improvised Ritual Circle = +1 ritual difficulty, but increasing the time to create it will lower it by 1. So there is no cumulative effect for having to make a ritual circle on the spot) 'Step Three: Casting the Ritual' With the creature set within a ritual circle, Willam begins to cast the ritual. The ritual is a combination of Charm Animal (for the animal's loyalty), Animal Sight (so that he can see through the animal's eyes) and Ritual of Enchantment (to forge the bond between them). Willam had to review the two spells and the one ritual prior to casting the ritual so that he knew how to both channel the energy and pronounce all of the words correctly. The advantage with the ritual is that if he didn't know one of the spells another caster who was assisting him within the ritual can provide that service. (Mechanics: No actual roll is necessary to cast the spells or additional ritual during this phase. Mana is spent in order of cost; lowest first. Mana used from stored items (staff or wand) takes no concentration check to use. Mana drawn into the body to cast requires a base concentration check as though the mage were casting the spell naturally). Over the course of a half-hour he had charmed the animal, forged the bond between it and himself and then finally opened his sight so that he could see through the animal's eyes with an effort of will. (Mechanics: The assistance of the master or any other caster can be used in one of three ways: lowering the difficulty of the ritual (to the minimum), decreasing the amount of time needed to cast the ritual or as a source of additional mana. As Willam's player had the required mana (either in storage or by drawing it into himself), and the ritual was already at its lowest difficulty, he chose to decrease the amount of time required to cast the ritual. ) By the conclusion of the ritual, which only took half of the time since his master was helping, he could feel the presence of the Black Lynx in the back of his mind and could summon that connection as easily as he would pull an object from his pocket. He could feel the affection and companionship from the cat as though he had known it as a friend for years. He decided to name the cat 'Yava', a Medjia word meaning 'Stealth'. (Mechanics: Willam's player rolls Rituals + (Intelligence Modifier) vs Base Difficulty=10, + Ritual level (1), + modifiers (0).) [[Category:Ritual/Arcane] Category:Ritual/Natural Category:Level 1 Ritual Category:Ritual/Creation Category:Arcane Rite/1